WASHINGTON, D.C.- The former owners and managers of a downtown
Fargo, North Dakota apartment complex will pay $15,000 to settle
allegations that they discriminated against families with children,
under an agreement reached today with the Justice Department.

The agreement, filed in the U.S. District Court in Fargo,
resolves a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in 1999, charging
the owners and managers of the Billmeyer Apartments discriminated
against families with children.

The suit stemmed from a complaint filed with the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by a married
couple. The couple alleged that the owners and managers violated the
federal Fair Housing Act by discriminating against them after the
husband's son moved in with the couple. HUD investigated the
complaint and referred the matter to the Justice Department for
litigation after efforts to resolve the matter through conciliation
proved unsuccessful.

"It has been over 30 years since the Fair Housing Act was
passed and 12 years since discrimination against families with
children under 18 was outlawed, yet discrimination against families
with children continues to be a very real problem in North Dakota and
other parts of the country," said Bill Lann Lee, Assistant Attorney
General for Civil Rights. "This agreement sends a clear message that
we will take aggressive action against those who deny housing to
families with children."

The complaint alleges that William Brandt, Richard Jordahl, and
Powers Properties, who owned the Billmeyer Apartments, located at 37
7th Street North, Fargo, as well as Velva Peterson, Jesse Craig,
Terrace Management Company, and NCM Properties, Inc., who managed the
complex, discriminated against a married couple after the husband's
six-year-old son moved in with them. It asserts that the defendants
repeatedly told the family that no children were allowed at the
Billmeyer Apartments and that the child would have to leave,
prohibited the child from playing in common areas of the complex,
raised the family's rent due to the presence of the child, and
otherwise treated the family less favorably than other tenants
because they had a child living with them.

In addition to the $15,000 penalty, the settlement prohibits
the owners and managers from engaging in discriminatory acts in the
future and requires them to complete an educational program
concerning fair housing law and to take other steps to prevent
discrimination. The settlement must still be approved by the court.